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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1441–1452Cite as

Evolutionary Perspective

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Synonyms

Evolutionary Psychology; Evolutionary Theory; Human Evolution

Definition

An evolutionary perspective of personality and individual differences proposes that our personalities and individual differences have evolved, in part, to provide us with some form of adaptive advantage in the context of survival and reproduction. This perspective is an evolutionary psychology perspective, which in itself is based on biological evolutionary theory. Evolutionary psychology integrates psychological theory with evolutionary biology, in an effort to understand traits, cognition, and behaviors, and how individuals may differ across these in light of achieving their evolutionary goals.

Introduction

Evolutionary perspectives of personality and individual differences are attempts at explaining our human traits and characteristics at a species level, group level (e.g., male and female differences, differences in specific personality traits), and at an individual level (i.e., how each of us are...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Bianca L. Kahl & Phillip S. Kavanagh

  2. ISN Psychology, Institute for Social Neuroscience, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia

    Phillip S. Kavanagh

  3. The Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia

    Phillip S. Kavanagh

Authors
  1. Bianca L. Kahl
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  2. Phillip S. Kavanagh
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Correspondence to Bianca L. Kahl .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Glenn Scheyd

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Kahl, B.L., Kavanagh, P.S. (2020). Evolutionary Perspective. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1632

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